This invention relates generally to the field of wood producing, and more particularly to a machine for planing large wood timbers easily.
Wood planers have been around for a while in different sizes. Modern mechanical planers consist of a stationary frame, a bed that can be moved up and down, feed rollers, a feeding mechanism, and a cylindrical cutting head holding three or more knives that pare off the excess wood. Models range from single planers which smooth one surface of a board at a time, to machines that can finish several surfaces simultaneously, e.g. double planers and four-sided planers, these latter machines being designed for putting high quality finish on lumber. Currently feed-speeds of up to 2000 fpm are available. (ref.: 1998 Product Guide, Newman Whitney). Further planers are also identified by the length of their cutting blades, such that a planer employing two 12xe2x80x3 cutting blades would be described a 12xe2x80x3 planer. These methods need other equipment to help move the timbers around and are expensive.
Hand planes, or hand-held planing instruments, have been known and used from early times by carpenters in order to remove rough surfaces on wood and for reducing it to size. An iron-soled carpenter""s plane, found on the site of a Roman town in Hampshire, England, dates from before AD 400 (ref.: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1991, v.9,p.495) Hand planes are used, to this time, for smaller jobs and for requiring ease of handling, as the feed stock does not have to be moved around as with the stationary planers and do not need to be fed into a stationary machine, Clearly, one of the disadvantages of a hand plane is that physical effort is required in operation.
Makita, Black and Decker and others came out with small hand held electric planers in the early 1970""s. The knives can be 3xc2xdxe2x80x3 long to 12xe2x80x3 long depending on the size of the work you need smoothed and they work well for what they are made to do but if there is a lot of surface to be planed they are not practical.
One of the earliest patents for small hand power planers can be found in the US Patents and Trademarks Office (POT) database: U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,343, issued December 1992 to Guise Coon, assigned to Black and Decker Inc. These are usually small and lightweight but Makita and others have made them with 12xe2x80x3 knives for larger surfaces.
There are also floor model planers made by Delta, Dewalt, Belsaw and many others that would be used in wood working shops and there are very large industrial planers that would usually be set up at a large mill or other industrial site.
There are many timber framing companies, log home builders, general contractors and smaller saw mills that work with rough sawed post and beam material. They can either bring this material to a large planer mill to have them done, use a floor model not really made for such heavy material, or use the hand held models that are really made for touch up work. Some of the limitations in using the planers available today are, when using the services of a large planer mill, the timbers must be trucked to and from the facility and the process is very expensive for the limited amount of timbers used in the average house.
When using a floor model shop type planer the user must have enough room on each side of the machine to feed in and feed out the timbers and the timbers must be handled by man power or by support equipment making it difficult in a smaller woodworking shop to plane long timbers.
While using a hand held surface planer is great for small touch up work it is to labor intensive to use on larger quantities of timbers and often the sole of the planer picks up sap and makes it hard to push by hand.
The primary object of the invention is to plane large and long wood timbers in a small shop.
Another object of the invention is to be portable and light enough for one person to operate more easily.
A further object of the invention is to be able to plane relatively endless lengths of timber.
Another object of the invention would be to generally square unsquare timbers.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a machine for planing large wood products comprises a set of planer knives driven by a power source, a set of rollers before and after the knives for self feeding the planer down the wood product, a flat surface each in front and behind the rollers and cutting knives for stability and smoothness, a means for adjusting the rollers in relation to the cutters for depth of cut, a means for adjusting the cutting unit in relation to the flat bearing surfaces, centering guides to keep the unit balanced on the work piece, and handles for carrying. The planer can have brackets on the sides extending partially under the wood being planed for planing to an accurate thickness.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following descriptions, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein, by way of illustration and example, an embodiment of the present invention is disclosed.